My Views on Nothing|Anything|Everything

    How potent a power is [communication technology] destined to     become in the civilization of the world!   This binds together     by a vital cord all the nations of the earth.   It is     impossible that old prejudices and hostilities should longer     exist, while such an instrument has been created for an     exchange of thought between all nations of the earth.   ~Briggs and Maverick (1858) Have you ever wondered why you like to read press stories of events that you already witnessed? Any soccer, basketball, gol... (Wait, that’s not a sport) fans? The media takes our love for using our wits and gives us a way to make them into our own reality. The media adds a sense of hyper-reality to experiences that we already know, feeding our desires and keeping us addicted. The media keeps you coming back for more. It’s probably the reason you’re r...

Going through the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) Website, I am bemused. I’m not quite sure that I’ve seen a website that’s more utopian and full of fantasies. Among their achievements are ‘ reduced incidents of wildlife poaching throughout the country, improved Kenya's image as a tourist destination through provision of adequate security in protected areas, well developed and maintained surveillance and intelligence network   and maintenance of an updated and efficient security database.’ For the past few weeks, I’ve been accosted by a blitzkrieg of articles and features on poaching in the media. There have been varying accounts of the actual number of rhinos and elephants killed with the blame game taking centre stage on who’s actually responsible for the issue. The acting director of the KWS, William Kiprono recently broke from his silence and accused the media and the NGO’S of exaggerating figures. He further added that that poaching was a challenge and not a crisis ...

What do you do when a medical test for employment includes a HIV test? What do you do when your employer asks you to undergo a HIV test? Does your employer have the right to do that? In employment forms, are you obligated to reveal your HIV status? These and related questions are a representation of the workplaces that we are at every day. HIV- related conversations are more common but has the stigma really gone away? Are we really treated fairly regardless of our real or perceived HIV status? On 18th March 2008, The High Court ruled that in the case of J. A. O. Vs Home Park Caterers & Metropolitan Hospital HCC No. 38 of 2003, the testing of an employee or prospective employee for HIV without his or her consent constitutes an invasion of her right to privacy. That disclosure of an employee’s HIV status to the employer without her consent is unlawful. That termination of an employee on the basis of his/her HIV status only is unlawful. The case was filed by a waitress ...

Copyright is a legal right that authors, publishers and other producers of information-related materials have to protect their work from unauthorized reproduction (Lesman, 1995). It is argued that it originated from the industrial revolution in Europe. Pre-1800, publishing was a preserve of the higher echelons of society; those well-heeled individuals able to pay “copiers” to manually make copies of manuscripts which was both tedious and expensive. With the revolution, came production en masse which threatened publishers who went to their government for protection as they feared for their monopolies over the intellectual, economic and moral rights they held over their publications. This lead to creation of laws to protect intellectual property rights including but not limited to copyright. The Berne Convention (1886) and The Universal Copyright Convention (1952) are two of the earliest treaties signed into existence to adopt uniform standards in enacting copyright legisla...